JRS African Meeting

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Back to Collaboration space for Africa in BHL

JRS African Biodiversity Literature Digitization Workshop

‍Chicago, IL, USA
‍16 November 2011

Venue

Chicago Field Museum: fieldmuseum.org
Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Accommodations

Accomodation for attendees who were awarded a scholarship will be handled by Audrey Aronowsky from the Field Museum.

Food

Lunch and coffee breaks will be provided to attendees during the workshop.

Attendees

Name	Institution	Role	Confirmed	Presentation
Bryan Heidorn	JRS Foundation	Facilitator	Yes
Efrem-Fred A. Njau	National Herbarium of Tanzania	Invited attendee	Cancelled
Lawrence Monda	National Museums of Kenya	Attendee	Yes	JRS presentation Chicago Lawrence.pdf
Lucy Waruingi	African Conservation Center, Kenya	Attendee	Yes	LucyW ACC_JRS African Biodiversity Literature Final.pdf
Herbert Tushabe	National Biodiversity Data Bank, Makerere University, Uganda	Invited attendee	Cancelled
Ashah Owano	National Museums of Kenya	Attendee	Yes	Ashah FINAL PRESENTATION3.pdf
Dorothy Wanja Nyingi	National Museums of Kenya	Attendee	Yes	BHL presentation_Wanja Dorothy.pdf
Alex Asase	University of Ghana	Attendee	Yes	2011_11 Alex Asasi presentation.pdf
Willem Coetzer	South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)	Attendee	Yes	Digitising.pdf
Anne-Lise Fourie	Mary Gunn Library, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)	Attendee	Yes	2011_10 Fourie presentation.pdf
Margaret Koopman	Niven Library, Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa	Attendee	Yes	The Niven Library.pdf
Gracian Chimwaza	ITOCA (Information Training & Outreach Centre for Africa), South Africa	Attendee	Yes	ITOCA biodivesirty conference 2011-10-29.pdf
Tom Garnett	Smithsonian Institution	BHL Executive Director	Yes
Chris Freeland	Missouri Botanical Garden	Global BHL Technical Director	Yes
William Ulate	Missouri Botanical Garden	Global BHL Project Manager	Yes

Meeting Notes

Discussion Summary and Action Items

Draft Proposed Agenda for JRS

The goal of the meeting is to bring together African librarians, biologists, computer scientists, publishers and students to discuss and decide on African needs and objectives for Biodiversity Literature Digitization.

From		To		Activity
8:30	–	9:00	:	Coffee, tea, continental breakfast
9:00	–	9:15	:	Welcome, introductions, review of agenda (Brian Heidorn)
9:30	–	10:30	:	10-minutes Presentations (5)
10:30	–	10:45	:	Coffee, tea break
10:45	–	12:00	:	10-minutes Presentations (5)
12:00	–	12:30	:	Discussion (I part)
12:30	–	1:30	:	Lunch (catered)
1:30	–	3:00	:	Discussion (II part)
3:00	–	3:15	:	Coffee, tea break
3:15	–	4:30	:	Discussion (III part)
3:15	–	4:30	:	Summary and Closing Remarks
		4:30	:	Adjourn

Draft Proposed Discussion Topics and Structure

1. Introduction
2. Presentations
   Each attendee has been invited to give a brief 10-minutes presentation about their institution and projects that would relate to the next 5 years of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
3. Discussion
   African attendees along with BHL representatives will discuss the following topics from their presentations:
   • What are the uses of biodiversity literature in their context/research/institution and the related problems.
   • What is needed in terms of biodiversity literature?
   • What local digitizing efforts are in existence? Can they be scaled?
   • What biodiversity textual content do you have access to that is not widely duplicated elsewhere, eg. Grey literature.
   • Is there a desire for trans-institutional or trans-national cooperation?
   • Who are the players able to take the initiative?
   • Are there particular challenges to both digitization and access in your institutions and in the region that might be important for the design of future versions of BHL?
   • Are there particular legal or institutional issues that would impact digitization of content?
     This might include local copyright laws, ownership of materials or other issues.
   • Are there particular holes in the coverage of BHL that are critical to your communities or that might serve as a motivation for future funding and work?
   • Are the materials available in your regions or from other parts of the world? Examples might be Belgium, Germany and England but also other countries.
   • Who do you see as the primary users of BHL in Africa? Who do you believe would be the primary suppliers of information that are not at the table?
   • Are there interface issues to be considered such as local languages for the interface?
4. Summary and Closing remarks